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Page 10 text:
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Leaving New Bedford! Entering Fairhaven! The approxi¬ mate time is the year 1800. As one crossed the old New Bedford- Fairhaven Bridge and entered this town, one saw on the left of the road a two-story, wooden structure, which measured about fif¬ ty by twenty four feet. If a passerby had asked what it was, he would have been told that it was called the New Bedford Acad¬ emy, and that it was a private school for the secondary education of the local girls and boys. Another inquiry might have concerned the reason for its es¬ tablishment, and the means by which it had been made possible. To answer this, it would have been necessary to go back a number of years to the earliest days of Fairhaven, when the only educa¬ tion a child received was that which could be obtained in the home. The next step in education was the establishment of class¬ es in different homes, with a master teaching the children. Later, district schools were built in various parts of the town. These were poorly ventilated, slip-shod, single-roomed buildings, into which came the children from five to fourteen years of age, to be taught by one instructor. Eacb child brought along books that he happened to have, which might aid him in gaining an academic education. After attending this grammar school, the average pupil was unable to obtain further education. Of course, the wealthier boys and girls were sent to private schools away from home, and, perhaps, later, a few were enrolled in college. But public schooling ceased when a pupil had completed his course in these district schools. On April 13, 1798, the citizens of Oxford Village decided to build an academy for secondary education. Two years later, on May Day, the school was established and opened. Although this was a private school, more of the young people of the town 6
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Page 11 text:
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could attend because it was nearer at liand. Tlie academy pro¬ ceeded to operate without serious incident for some fifty years. J hen tlie town fathers decided that tlie scliool should he improved. The sum of four thousand five lumdred dollars was appro¬ priated to refit and adapt the Methodist Church to the needs of a school, and near the end of January 1852, the first public high school began sessions in its new home, having at this time a stu¬ dent body of seventy-five, and a faculty of three. Four years later, Henry Rogers, the son of poor parents, was graduated. He secured a loan of ten dollars from a fellow- townsman, went to New York to seek his fortune in the manner of the fairy-tale heroes, and, as sometimes happens, he actually did make a fortune. As the years went on, he dreamed a dream, and as his fortunes increased, he decided to make that dream a reality. His dream was to improve Fairhaven by giving it beau¬ tiful as well as practical gifts. The first of these gifts was the Rogers Grammar School. In architecture, sanitary conditions, heating, and lighting, it was far superior to any school building then in use in Fairhaven. This building, for the first two years of its existence, was used to house the high school as well as the town grammar school. As Mr. Rogers’ wealth increased, his desire to better his home town increased also. One by one, buildings such as the Millicent Library, Town Hall, and the Memorial Church, were erected by him. Ill 1905, Mr. Rogers decided to build a school to take the place of the high school from which he had been graduated. Near¬ ly fifty years had elapsed since his graduation day, and he de¬ termined that this, his newest gift, would he presented to the town on the anniversary of his graduation. He engaged experts to procure the most durable and beautiful of available materi¬ als for this dream high school, which he was planning to give his home town. His dream became a reality, beauty in every line, inside and out; every practical hit of equipment needed, was pur¬ chased to make the building useful as well as ornamental. The High School, built in Elizahethean style, and construct¬ ed of Ashlar (piarried from Fort Pheonix and of Indiana lime-
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